Acts 4: A lesson in boldness

So the Jewish leaders get annoyed with Peter and John healing and preaching and baptizing people, so they arrest them, throw them in a cell and haul them in front of the Sanhedrin the next day for questioning about how they healed a lame beggar.

And Peter and John are, for lack of a better term, pretty badass. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter is unfazed:

"Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead -- by him this man is standing before you well." (4:8-10)

The council orders them "not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus" (4:18) anymore, and Peter and John basically say, "Thanks, but no":

"Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard." (4:19-20)

Then, having just conducted a clinic in boldness, they go and pray for more boldness in speaking God's word -- certainly a lesson for us never to let ourselves become complacent or self-satisfied.

(Image: Martino di Bartolomeo, "St. Peter," 1400)